Numerous homages have been made worldwide in Vasco da Gama's honour for his explorations and accomplishments. For his contributions he was named in 1524 as the Governor of India, under the title of Viceroy, and given the newly created County of Vidigueira in 1519. Gama headed two of the armadas destined for India, the first and the fourth, the biggest armada, only four years after his arrival from the first one. These spices were mostly pepper and cinnamon at first, but soon included other products, all new to Europe which led to a commercial monopoly for several decades. Reaching the legendary Indian spice routes unopposed helped the Portuguese Empire improve its economy that, until Gama, was mainly based on trades along Northern and coastal West Africa. The route meant that the Portuguese would not need to cross the highly disputed Mediterranean nor the dangerous Arabia, and that the whole voyage would be made by sea.Īfter decades of sailors trying to reach India with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks and attacks, Gama landed in Calicut on.
This discovery was very significant and paved the way for the Portuguese to establish a long lasting colonial empire in Asia. He is one of the most famous and celebrated explorers from the Discovery Ages, being the first European to reach India by sea. 1460-1469? – 23 December 1524), 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. Vasco da Gama ( Portuguese pronunciation: ) (c. Sines or Vidigueira, Alentejo, Kingdom of Portugalĭ.
Vasco da GamaĪdmiral of the Seas of Arabia, Persia, India and all the Orients ( more.) The initial version of this article on Vikidia is a copy of the article Vasco da Gama on the Simple English Wikipedia.For other uses, see Vasco da Gama (disambiguation).He he died soon after he got there on Christmas Eve. Vasco da Gama went on one last trip in 1524, to be the viceroy (governor) of Calicut, which was now a Portuguese colony. This made the King of Portugal very happy with him. Then he went on to Calicut and took over that city and captured much wealth. During this trip, he attacked and stole from all the Arab and Indian ships he found in the Indian Ocean. Vasco da Gama went on his next trip in 1502, after he found out that the people of Calicut had killed the Portuguese he had left behind. A few of his Portuguese sailors stayed in Calicut. However, he escaped and returned to Portugal in September 1499. Vasco da Gama was in danger because of a conflict with the ruler of Calicut. The pilot brought the Portuguese men to the city of Calicut on the southwest coast of India on May 20, 1498. There, at Malindi, da Gama hired a pilot from India. An angry crowd discovered that da Gama's men were not Muslims, so the crew continued north to Kenya. Mozambique was controlled by Arabs because it was part of the Indian Ocean's network of trade. By January, Da Gama's crew had reached modern-day Mozambique, on the East African coast. The coast they named is still called Natal. They did this because they sailed near to that coast at at the same time they celebrated Christmas. Da Gama's crew gave the South African coast they were passing the name Natal, a word which means " Christmas" in Portuguese. Vasco da Gama sailed around the bottom of the African continent. No European explorer before him had sailed further than the place that is now called South Africa. He intended that his ships sail to India. On Jhe left Lisbon with four ships: the São Gabriel, the São Rafael, the Berrio, and a storage ship of unknown name. According to some people's accounts, he was a knight in the 1490s at Sines. He was the first European who went to India through the Cape of Good Hope, the southern end of Africa. Vasco da Gama ( 1460 or 1469?-December 24, 1524) was a Portuguese sailor.